French Gourmet Owner: "In Hindsight, Advertising That 'Our Pastry Chef Is So Good, It Should Be Illegal' Was Not the Best Idea."

Michel Malecot, owner of La Jolla's French Gourmet restaurant, says recent ad campaign was "not really thought through. The slogan involved a poor choice of words, especially since our pastry chef was, in fact, illegal. Really, this is almost as bad as our 1997 'Breaking All the Rules' campaign. Of course, I was referring to our willingness to incorporate aspects of California Cuisine into the classical French repertoire, but then as now, the ads attracted the wrong sort of attention."